SpaceX's private crewed launch to ISS is finally about to happen
Following a series of delays, SpaceX, Axiom Space, and NASA are now targeting 2:31 a.m. ET on Wednesday, June 25, (11:31 p.m. PT on Tuesday, June 24) for the launch of Axiom Space's fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The new schedule was announced on Monday night.
The Ax-4 mission will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the four-person crew traveling on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft after launching on a Falcon 9 rocket.
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The Crew Dragon is expected to dock with the orbital outpost at about 7 a.m. ET (4 a.m. PT) on Thursday, June 26.
The Ax-4 crew comprises Commander Peggy Whitson, a veteran NASA astronaut and Axiom Space's director of human spaceflight; Shubhanshu Shukla from the Indian Space Research Organisation, making his first spaceflight; Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, a European Space Agency project astronaut from Poland and on his first trip to space; and Tibor Kapu, representing the Hungarian Space Office, also on his first orbital voyage.
The mission will last about 10 days, during which time the crew will live and work alongside the current ISS inhabitants. To find out more about daily life on the space station, check out these videos made by visiting astronauts over the years.
A number of issues have prevented the Ax-4 mission from getting underway earlier. The launch was first targeted for June 10 but inclement weather forced a delay. June 11 also presented a launch opportunity, but the discovery of a liquid oxygen leak in the Falcon 9 booster prompted engineers to scrub the plan.
A launch effort for June 19 was also called off after a leak was discovered in the Zvezda service module at the ISS. A new target date of June 22 was set, but this was also called off to give the mission team more time to evaluate space station operations. Officials are now satisfied that everything is in order, and so the launch can finally take place.
Interested in watching the launch and initial stages of the Ax-4 mission? Digital Trends has you covered.
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